Hedge funds controlled by female managers brought in the money last year: according to Rothstein Kass, they produced a return of 8.95 percent through the third quarter of 2012. (In contrast, the HFRX Global Hedge Fund Index only logged a 2.69 percent net return through September.)

Is it because, as the New York Times notes, "female financiers can have particular advantages over their male counterparts, including being more risk-averse and better able to avoid volatility"?

Or is it because women who advance that high up in the industry have to be so much better than men to even get there in the first place?

366 senior women in the alternative investment industry told Rothstein Kass what it's like to work in finance for their annual survey. Despite the high returns, it pretty much sounds like the same old bullshit:

The survey found that 18 percent of the firms surveyed had female chief investment officers, and 16 percent had chief executives who were women.

The reasons for the gap? Women in the alternative investment industry lack opportunities to prove themselves, and some become discouraged, the respondents said. "Old boys' club" was a phrase that multiple respondents used.

59 percent of the women surveyed said they were optimistic about more women joining that boy's club in 2013 and beyond. We'll see.